Blogs from Cherbourg, Lower Normandy, France, Europe

Ierland blog : Zaterdag 24/8/2019 – Cherbourg. We starten met een MH dagrit van 600km tot Cherbourg in Normandië. Hoofdzakelijk over de Franse péages. Temperaturen lopen op tot 35° onderweg. Klimaatopwarming ook hier. Hopelijk krijgen we eens regen in Ierland. Zondag 25/8/2019 Bootovertocht met StenaLines van Cherbourg naar Rosslare in het zuid-oosten van Ierland. 18uur varen voor 700km. Verzamelen ten laatste om 12.30 op de inschepingsparking. 8 eenheden. Dus een klein groepje van 16 koppen. Dan 2uur aanschuiven om op de boot te geraken. Dat hebben we al vlotter weten gaan. Toch vertrekken we op tijd om 15uur. Dus eigenlijk 14uur Ierse tijd. Prachtig weer 24° blauwe lucht en kalme zee. De speciaal bij de apotheker aangekochte pillen tegen zeeziekte kunnen in de doos blijven. Of misschien kunnen we ze nog gebruiken om niet ziek te ... read more

On site, heard aircraft over head! Hercules and Osprey from the USAF. We decided to nip over to the airport near us to see if there were any more aircraft over for the D Day celebrations. Yes ! 2 Spitfires and a Dakota ! Great to see !! Went round to the airport proper where the C130s were and one of the aircrew gave us a badge. Spoke to one of the 67 SOS airborne division as he was preparing for his drop over St Germain.... read more

Bon jour from Cherbourg France. This is actually our 3rdport in France during the whole vacation, but last night we received a message that we had to turn in our passports for Immigration to see before we would be allowed off the ship in Cherbourg. But it was easier to comply than to argue, so David ran them down to Passenger Services late last night. This morning we got up at 6:30 because we needed to be in the Wheelhouse Bar by 8:00. We got dressed and went to the breakfast buffet in the Horizon Court. Apparently there were more people in the late night nightclubs than the early morning buffet, so we had an easy time of finding a table and had a quiet breakfast. We discovered our dinner waiter (Rolly) was in charge of ... read more

With June 30th as our deadline for getting to the Channel Islands after a few days in Dieppe, the weather prediction looked like it would be good for our trip to Cherbourg, our original destination when we left Rotterdam. When sailing in this area you need to check the tide charts to determine when to leave to hopefully get the advantage of the tides and currents. With this in mind you also try to plan your travels so that you make landfall during daylight hours if at all possible. We knew Cherbourg as we had been there before and it would be possible to have a nighttime arrival, but we prefer daytime landings! Working it all out it looked like we needed to leave Dieppe about 5:30PM on June 22nd but would have some flexibility of ... read more

Cherbourg is a pleasant and bustling town. After tidying the boat, having lunch, chilling for a bit, recovering our nerve and showering - it was early evening. We went for a walk to exchange our money and explore. Unfortunately the bureau de change was closed so we decided to withdraw some Euros for our dinner and swallow the fee! With the cash nestled snugly in our pockets we took a walk around the old Norman town and marvelled at the cute little buildings in cobbled streets - particularly at a cute little green and pink gabled ‘salon du the’ which Mike described as a ‘Hansel and Gretel House’. Feeling a little thirsty and keen to sample some beer al fresco we continued wandering in search of a nice place for an early evening beer. Not far ... read more